Delay repay free ticket on Northern

After being 80 minutes late from Warrington to Manchester last month, I received a free return ticket from Northern for a day's travel.

Wishing to get the most for my 'money', had a look Manchester to Newcastle or maybe Manc to Lincoln as a possible way for decent mileage or to jump on the most number of units.

If I pick the Manc to Lincoln Northern only trains, the quickest route is via Sheffield.
My question is, if I went via say Huddersfield or Leeds, as I'd still be heading roughly towards Lincoln, would the guards be bothered as it's a freebie and leave me alone, or do I need to be reasonable direct with my choice of trains?

I had no issues doing Warrington-Manchester-Leeds-Nottingham.

(Well, apart from the conductor on the LDS-NOT service having never seen one of the free tickets before(!!!) and wondering if she had to give me a ticket. I told her she didn't and that was my ticket-no further issues)

I’ve done some fairly ludicrous routes on these tickets (I get a lot of them) and whilst technically I think you should stick to a permitted route I’ve never had any issues being a fair way off of it.

Northern guards will understand that you can't go direct on some routes - for example, Manchester to Carlisle I've done via the Cumbrian Coast, or via the Settle and Carlisle then across to Newcastle. I was asked if I was on the right train when going up the Cumbrian as it was the long way round, but as long as the guard knows you're on the train you think you should be on, you'll generally find them happy.

Thanks for the replies.
I think that gives me the confidence to be a bit more relaxed in how I approach my route.